Vintage Gates BC 250 GY

Our newest addition here at our home for classic rigs: a Gates BC 250 GY from the legendary flamethrower, WCPC in Houston, Mississippi.
Back in the days of Elvis, Carl Perkins & Jerry Lee Lewis, (all of whom had numerous live appearances on Clear Channel 940) this was the night transmitter for the 50,000 watt daytime blowtorch. It's in excellent condition & obviously well cared for by a fine engineer for many years.
                                                                  Stay tuned for more pics as we put this one back together. 
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Vintage Broadcast Transmitters

Gates CB-210

Our newest restoration project is a Gates CB-210 turntable from the mid-fifties. This grand old gal is capable of playing the old 16" transcriptions, 78's, 45's and 331/3's. It works! Needs a cleanup & a change of tone arm to the original Gray Research equipment. When the refurb is done, this item will actually go back into limited use & be on display in the new studios of WCPH Homegrown Radio Station.

RCA BTA 1R1

Completely functional on its original frequency of 790 khz. It is a later version, using solid state rectifiers in a full wave bridge configuration. The color scheme is one of the most pleasing RCA ever came up with. It is the original transmitter for WETB, 790, in Johnson City, Tennessee, owned by Press, Incorporated & cared for by Lynn Williams & Trevor F. Swoyer for years & years. It is a testament to the fine work of these two gentlemen that the rig is in such mint condition today. All she needs is the careful removal of those blasted cart labels and the bumper sticker at the top!

Western Electric 407 A

This is the oscillator/driver/ modulator section of a Western Electric 407 A-1 50 kw Doherty transmitter. It was installed at KOMA, Oklahoma City, shortly before WWII. As you can see in the pictures, restoration would only be attempted by a madman. She was stored for many years in a non climate controlled environment. She survived a flood, vermin & many other nasties. Yet she will live again. At long last, a Machlett 241B has been located so the RF section will go back to all-original, circa 1937. See attached pictures of the mighty 241B sitting in a fully restored original WE socket. Also take a look at the original power supply iron... nice & muddy. Will they hold or will they go up in smoke? The audio section will probably use WE 357B's... unless more 241B's can be found.

T350 XM

Made by Technical Radio Corp. for The U.S. Navy as an Air Traffic Control Transmitter - there are others out there, but this is the only one I have seen. On the air at 3885 & 7290, it's a pair of 805's modulating a pair of 813's.

Collins S-Line

The Collins S-Line was the finest SSB transceiver of its time. I am fortunate to own and operate this historic pair. Norman A. Thomas, the co-founder of WDOD, Chattanooga owned this rig for many years. It passed down to his son, Norman Jr. who in-turn traded it to my dear friend Trevor Swoyer. I finally talked him out of it and after letting some smoke out she's purring like a kitten.

​Brennan

I don't own this transmitter, but it is such an important piece of broadcasting history it must be included here. This is one of seven Brennan composite transmitters designed & built by the team of Cyril Brennan and Billy Benns. It was type-accepted by the FCC in 1958 and served as the night rig for WFLI for a few years and as back-up thereafter. For a 1kw transmitter it is truly overbuilt. My good friend Jeff Gregory, CE at WFLI, last ran this rig on the air in 1993. The Brennan-Benns team built higher powered transmitters for WAPE, Jacksonville The BIG Ape!, WBAM, WVOK, and another kilowatt for WEUP. For more details, see http://wape690.wordpress.com. There's some wonderful history there.

Collins 21E
Serial # 12

This is the driver cabinet from WDOD's 21E, installed in 1954 & removed for the final time in 2011. Alas, WDOD-AM, Chattanooga's oldest radio station dating back to the 1920's is no more. This 21E replaced a Federal 5kw rig that was WDOD's mainstay for many years. Over time, Charlie Stokley, Parks Hall, & others kept this fine lady in tip-top shape. She remained in full time service until a Continental 314-R was installed in 1987, & was fully functional as a stand-by & on the air regularly until 1998. I had the sad privilege of removing her just ahead of the wrecking crew that eliminated any physical evidence of WDOD on the Baylor School campus. Plans are to convert the driver to a 500 watt plate modulated stand-alone transmitter, ready for service on 160 meters. My special thanks to Parks Hall and Ben Johnston for help, information, & collaboration.

​For questions please contact KT4NO

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